Jim Lahey’s new book titled “MY PIZZA”

[scott123]

Dam straight.  I took the expo/tour.  At the end of three days I finally figured out that I was invited to the table of another.  I have no right to criticize except for my personal taste.  Certainly, walk a mile in the guys oven type of thing.  The World has very few knowledgeable people about anything, much less pizza.  I would put money with Scott. Period.

That's very kind of you to say, Gene. We may part ways when it comes to char and salt preferences, but, between your time in NY and your time on this forum, you definitely 'get' NY pizza.

[norma427]

If Jim Lahey’s book is looked inside, it can be seen that he recommends using a pizza stone and preheating the oven and using the broiler to preheat the pizza stone.  If anyone wants to read more about Jim Lahey’s methods some are at this link.  http://www.food52.com/blog/2912_jim_laheys_noknead_pizza_dough  The comments at the bottom are interesting.

Bonappetit has the recipe for Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Pizza Dough this month, if anyone is interested.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/03/no-knead-pizza-dough

Norma

[norma427]

Norma, I expect more from Jim Lahey.  Most of the people that are familiar with him/his bakeries/restaurants are most likely going to be advanced enough bakers to be in a position to want to invest in the right tools for the job.

Better Homes and Gardens, Alton Brown, Gourmet, Cook's Illustrated- if these people want to follow the 'even mediocre pizza is still good pizza' mentality, I'm not going to make a big stink, because of the demographic they're appealing to.  But Lahey (and Reinhart) has stature. Someone with his knowledgebase and experience in the industry should be presenting more than compromises for the home pizza baker.  Definitely, present the easy route, but also present more costly/harder to find options for the more passionate.

Edit: I just found this in the Amazon description:

It sounds like it might be an inverted cast iron pan technique.  I really hope it isn't, but I guess it's better than "turn your oven the highest it will go."

Scott,

Although I agree with you in some ways, in others I don’t.  I think books are produced for the masses of people that might want to try something new, or try something they can’t do.  I don’t know how Jim Lahey’s book will be accepted, but his other book did get people to try different things they didn’t before.  

You will see what I just posted that Jim Lahey does recommend getting a pizza stone and preheating the pizza stone and even using a broiler to heat more.  

I would like to ask you a question if you had the chance to write a book on how you would explain to the masses of people that would want to learn to make a decent pizza?  I also would like to ask you what formulation you would give people that don’t have access to commercial flours and want to make a NY style pizza?  

Jim Lahey’s is like many popular chefs, bakers, or celebrities in many ways.  He also likes to make money.  I am not saying his new book in anything spectacular, but might help some people that don‘t know how to make pizza.  I just posted about his book if anyone is interested.

Norma

[parallei]

Norma,

Here's the recipe (or at least pretty close) for the Lahey no-knead pizza you linked to in baker's percentages.  I assumed it made 6 @ 12-inch pies.

Flour 100%
Water 71%
ADY 0.2%
Salt 2%
TF =0.09

I like his no knead pizza bianca.

Paul

[norma427]

Norma,

Here's the recipe (or at least pretty close) for the Lahey no-knead pizza you linked to in baker's percentages.  I assumed it made 6 @ 12-inch pies.

Flour 100%
Water 71%
ADY 0.2%
Salt 2%
TF =0.09

I like his no knead pizza bianca.

Paul

Paul,

Thanks so much for calculating Jim Lahey’s recipe in baker’s percentages for anyone that is interested. 

Norma

[eatrustic]

I've just received my copy of My Pizza and a quick read through shows he is more concerned with his technique then the flour used.
For him it's all about the oven set up with (as mentioned above) extensive use of the broiler both before and during the cooking process.

Lahey's preference is for a gas fired oven, but with a few tweaks, the electric gives as good a product in his opinion. Funny though, I couldn't seem to find his procedure for the gas oven although there is great detail for the electric. Easy enough to figure out, but for the newbie....
Also in his procedure for making and shaping the dough it isn't clear how long the dough balls should rest before the final shaping. Only a comment about if they are refrigerated they should sit out for a couple of hours.

He has set up a web site http://theuniversityofbread.com that he encourages everyone to contact with questions, suggestions etc. It just came online today but as yet is not functional.

There are lots of topping combos and side dishes that look pretty tasty, many from Co. 

Won't be able to put his technique to the test for a couple of days but am looking forward to it as I've been asked to demo his book at a local Cook Book store if I like it.

[TXCraig1]

He has set up a web site http://theuniversityofbread.com that he encourages everyone to contact with questions, suggestions etc. It just came online today but as yet is not functional.

Why would you publish your website if it is still in Lorem ipsum? Bizarre.

[norma427]

I've just received my copy of My Pizza and a quick read through shows he is more concerned with his technique then the flour used.
For him it's all about the oven set up with (as mentioned above) extensive use of the broiler both before and during the cooking process.

Lahey's preference is for a gas fired oven, but with a few tweaks, the electric gives as good a product in his opinion. Funny though, I couldn't seem to find his procedure for the gas oven although there is great detail for the electric. Easy enough to figure out, but for the newbie....
Also in his procedure for making and shaping the dough it isn't clear how long the dough balls should rest before the final shaping. Only a comment about if they are refrigerated they should sit out for a couple of hours.

He has set up a web site http://theuniversityofbread.com that he encourages everyone to contact with questions, suggestions etc. It just came online today but as yet is not functional.

There are lots of topping combos and side dishes that look pretty tasty, many from Co. 

Won't be able to put his technique to the test for a couple of days but am looking forward to it as I've been asked to demo his book at a local Cook Book store if I like it.

eatrustic,

Thanks for letting us know what Jim Lahey’s said in his book.   Jim Lahey’s website did work for me.  Thanks for posting it.   

Let us know when using Jim Lahey’s technique how it works out and good luck if you do demo of his book at a local Cook Book store. 

Norma

[norma427]

Why would you publish your website if it is still in Lorem ipsum? Bizarre.

Craig,

The Contact feature doesn't work yet, but the website does. 

Norma

[eatrustic]

Craig,

The Contact feature doesn't work yet, but the website does. 

Norma

It's actually in maintenance mode right now and scheduled to be back up tomorrow. I believe the official launch date is the 20th so I guess they're pushing it close to the wire. In any case I'll cut 'em some slack for the next week or so to see how it all plays out.

The website idea is a good one as I remember a book called Local Breads that was excellent on many levels but had terrible recipe checking and had no end of errors that could have been quickly set right with the author -Dan Leader- being  there to work things out.

[norma427]

eatrustic,

I also think the website is a good idea!  Will see how many people get help if they are having problems.

Norma

[norma427]

On Slice yesterday J. Kenji had an article about Jim Lahey’s No Knead Pizza Dough with the recipe http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/03/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe.html and a video of Jim Lahey from Sullivan St. Bakery making the No Knead Pizza Dough at his home.
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/03/video-at-home-with-jim-lahey.html#continued  In the video Jim Lahey’s says the pizza is baked in 3 ½ minutes.  Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza with Broccoli Rabe, Garlic, Ginger, and Thai Chilis


Norma

[norma427]

Norma

At Jim Lahey’s website the Boscaiola Pie http://theuniversityofbread.com/boscaiola-pi/ and the and the Margherita Pie http://theuniversityofbread.com/margherita-pie/

Norma

[Bobino414]

Norma

Thanks for posting the Lahey pizza at home video.  When he added water it wasn't measured, he just added until he got the right consistency.  The end result was a more cohesive dough than the gooey mess I got.   This may be due to a hydration lower than the 70% in the book and/or the higher humidity in Fl. 

[norma427]

Norma

Thanks for posting the Lahey pizza at home video.  When he added water it wasn't measured, he just added until he got the right consistency.  The end result was a more cohesive dough than the gooey mess I got.   This may be due to a hydration lower than the 70% in the book and/or the higher humidity in Fl. 

Bob,

I sure don’t know, but would think if someone uses AP flour or bread flour (even the different brands of AP or bread flour) the amounts of water could vary.  Also like you posted the humidity or even altitude of where you live might also be a factor in mixing Jim Lahey’s No Knead Pizza dough. 

Norma

[norma427]

Another article about Jim Lahey’s No Knead Pizza Dough  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/no-knead-pizza_n_1364299.html

Norma

[norma427]

I decided to mix the Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Pizza Dough because I wanted to try it out and also because my home oven is really anemic in temperature.  My home oven can only get to around 500 degrees F.  I used Paul’s baker’s percents at Reply 23  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,18210.msg176631.html#msg176631  to figure out the dough formulation using the Expanded Dough Calculating Tool.  I am only going to try a 12” pizza for my first attempt.  I used KABF in the formulation and fine sea salt.  I also used a bowl residue compensation.

This is a print out of the formulation and the first two pictures of the Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Pizza Dough after mixing with a spoon and gently hand kneading.  The dough ball was then put into a clean plastic container.  It is about 70 degrees ambient temperature now in my home, but it is supposed to get warmer tomorrow.

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[eatrustic]

Well, that was exciting 

I did up two separate batches of the dough following the recipe more or less exactly with the following adjustments:
I only did a half (or two ball) batch of each.
I subbed IDY for the ADY yeast Lehay calls for.
Yeast was .335 gr IDY (1/2 recipe) instead of .5 gr ADY

Flours used were: -Rogers No Additive Unbleached All Purpose
                         -Better For Bread
I mixed each as per instructions and and left them at room temp, which in this case was about 62 F. so I knew this was going to be more of a 20 hour rise which was fine with me. The doughs looked slightly more mixed than in Norma's photos as I gave them a touch more elbow grease.
I did the exact recipe amounts and did not add any extra flour or water. Both batches of dough weighed exactly the same.
The Better For Bread was noticeably softer but still very acceptable.
At the 12 hour mark I couldn't help myself and did a stretch and fold of each dough. They were both looking good with nice extensibility and the Better For Bread was still somewhat softer.

The doughs were ready at about the 22 hour mark and I shaped each into two balls and covered and let rest for about 2 more hours at about 72 F.

Followed the instructions for an electric oven by preheating the stone 4 inches from the top at 500 F. for 30 mins. followed by opening the oven door 30 seconds and then closing and turning on the broiler for 10 minutes (although I figured 5 would be fine)
At this point I shaped the first batch (Rogers) using the tomato sce recipe from the book. Everything looked great. The dough stretched out nicely and I opened the oven door........ to find the broiler and the whole oven had shut off -game over!

I slid the one pizza in hoping the broiler would come back on but it didn't. The oven temp of course dropped like a paralyzed falcon and what passed for a pizza came out after about 10 minutes with modest color -and of course doughy.

This is no slight on the book's technique as I know that I have a crappy apartment sized oven that is obviously past it's due date. At my place of work I have a 3 deck stone hearth oven but it only goes to about 550 F. so no joy there either.
Time to buy a new oven that fits the tiny space available!

I shaped up the Better For Bread dough just to see what it was like and it looked and felt great.

As mentioned before Lehay should have made a point of telling his readers that the dough balls need to rest for a good amount of time as the newbie could get the impression that only the refrigerated doughs need to sit out for awhile and would try to shape up freshly rounded ones with poor results. (Maybe it's just me...)

Another day....

[norma427]

Well, that was exciting 

I did up two separate batches of the dough following the recipe more or less exactly with the following adjustments:
I only did a half (or two ball) batch of each.
I subbed IDY for the ADY yeast Lehay calls for.
Yeast was .335 gr IDY (1/2 recipe) instead of .5 gr ADY

Flours used were: -Rogers No Additive Unbleached All Purpose
                         -Better For Bread
I mixed each as per instructions and and left them at room temp, which in this case was about 62 F. so I knew this was going to be more of a 20 hour rise which was fine with me. The doughs looked slightly more mixed than in Norma's photos as I gave them a touch more elbow grease.
I did the exact recipe amounts and did not add any extra flour or water. Both batches of dough weighed exactly the same.
The Better For Bread was noticeably softer but still very acceptable.
At the 12 hour mark I couldn't help myself and did a stretch and fold of each dough. They were both looking good with nice extensibility and the Better For Bread was still somewhat softer.

The doughs were ready at about the 22 hour mark and I shaped each into two balls and covered and let rest for about 2 more hours at about 72 F.

Followed the instructions for an electric oven by preheating the stone 4 inches from the top at 500 F. for 30 mins. followed by opening the oven door 30 seconds and then closing and turning on the broiler for 10 minutes (although I figured 5 would be fine)
At this point I shaped the first batch (Rogers) using the tomato sce recipe from the book. Everything looked great. The dough stretched out nicely and I opened the oven door........ to find the broiler and the whole oven had shut off -game over!

I slid the one pizza in hoping the broiler would come back on but it didn't. The oven temp of course dropped like a paralyzed falcon and what passed for a pizza came out after about 10 minutes with modest color -and of course doughy.

This is no slight on the book's technique as I know that I have a crappy apartment sized oven that is obviously past it's due date. At my place of work I have a 3 deck stone hearth oven but it only goes to about 550 F. so no joy there either.
Time to buy a new oven that fits the tiny space available!

I shaped up the Better For Bread dough just to see what it was like and it looked and felt great.

As mentioned before Lehay should have made a point of telling his readers that the dough balls need to rest for a good amount of time as the newbie could get the impression that only the refrigerated doughs need to sit out for awhile and would try to shape up freshly rounded ones with poor results. (Maybe it's just me...)

Another day....

eatrustic,

Thank you for giving so much detail in your methods (flours, mixing instructions, balling, baking etc.) on making the no-knead dough and final pizza.   

I wonder about baking the no-knead dough in my anemic oven also and don’t think my broiler will stay on long enough to make any difference.  I would have tried Jim Lahey’s method at market in my deck oven, or in my BBQ grill set-up, but wanted to see how my anemic oven does.  I really don’t have any high expectations on how my pizza will turn out. 

Norma